Man and serpent were red with blood; and crimson were the grasses and the brush for yards in all directions as, with a final effort, Histah closed his giant coils spasmodically about his victim at the instant that Tarzan with a mighty upward heavy lunge cut through the vertebrae of the great snake.
Lashing and writhing, the nether portion, headless, flopped aside while the ape-man, still fighting with what remained, exerting his superhuman strength to its ultimate utmost, slowly forced the coils from about his body and cast the dying Histah from him. Then, without a glance at Stimbol, he turned to Bolgani.
"You are hurt to death?" he asked in the language of the great apes.
"No," replied the gorilla. "I am Bolgani! I kill, Tarmangani!"
"I am Tarzan of the Apes," said the ape-man. "I saved you from Histah."
"You did not come to kill Bolgani?" inquired the gorilla.
"No. Let us be friends."
Bolgani frowned in an effort to concentrate upon this remarkable problem. Presently he spoke. "We will be friends," he said. "The Tarmangani behind you will kill us both with his thunder stick. Let us kill him first." Painfully he staggered to his feet.
"No," remonstrated Tarzan. "I will send the Tarmangani away."
"You? He will not go."